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throat and went on getting the din
ner. The next morning she turned back
as she was starting out "Mother!"
she called. "They are painting the
vacant house!"
"Why, so they are! I guess we're
going to have neighbors."
dfc Workmen went in and out and a
w ' man was preparing the ground for
a small garden.
"Ah, ha!" cried Florence. "Now
Lady Grey will have to go into retire
ment or lose her neck."
"I'll watch her," protested Mrs.
Bennett.
"Well, I don't want your job,"
laughed the girl as she swung off to
the office.
That evening a tale of woe await
ed her.
"Oh, Florence! Such a dreadful
woman has moved in! Just a com
mon Irish creature with a thick
brogue."
"I told you your own wouldn't
come to you by way of Holly street!"
. Her mother being in the Joking
mood went on: "She spoke to me
well, it was insulting."
"I foresee- Lady Gray made the
first call."
"Yes, I thought I had stopped up
the hole in the runway, but she got
through and the way that woman
went for me. I don't know what we,
are going to do."
"Sell Lady Gray or move out," was
the oracular response.
"I hope, neither one. As for- being
penned up in those two little
rooms " Her voice broke with the
rising tears.
"There! there! dear, you needn't!"
And Florence kissed her till she
UP smiled.
Two or three days after this, as
Florence was taking a survey of their
small grassy" plot with its hardy an
nuals and shrubbery, a female voice
hailed her over the fence. She turned
and saw the owner gazing at her.
"Say, miss," she called, "I'd loike
ye to look afther that hen o' yours or
as true as I talkin I'll look afther her
mesilf. He's the row of phlox all
mixed up wid the 'sturtions, an' the,
sticks layin' galley west. It's enough
to be thryin' the patience of a holy,
saint, so it is!"
Florence heard a door open on the
other side of the fence.
' "Yes," she agreed. "I should think
it would be. Mother thought she had
fastened in Lady Grey. I'm very sor-,
ry. Did she get over there again?"
"Whether t'was Lady Grey or Lady
White, she's a divil of a hen, -an' if
she comes over again I'll "
Here the torrent of words came
suddenly to a stop with a masculine
voice breaking in: "Margaret! Mar
garet! What is the matter?"
"Well, if yer wantin' a garden just
ye thry havin' it wid a hen !"
"But the lady has said she was
sorry."
"Yes, indeed," said Florence, "and
I promise you you shall not- be an
noyed any more."
Here a rather good-looking young
man emerged from obscurity. More
explanations followed, and the mili
tant. Irish lady went into the house.
When Florence related the incident
to her mother the latter rejoined :
"I suppose she's taking boarders,
and it'll be noisy and unpleasant with
men running in and out."
"I shouldn't suppose anything but
day laborers would be likely to board
in Holly street. But maybe he's a
clerk . on a small salary still he
spoke like a gentleman."
"A clerk can be a gentleman," add
ed her mother.
"Yes," said the girl doubtfully.
"He can be."
It was really quite astonishing the
way in which the acquaintance over
the fence progressed, until one day
Mrs. Bennett invited him in. Flor
ence found she was glad he had
been invited. When she found she
was something more than glad, she
began to be supremely 1 disgusted
with herself. Where were her dreams
of a finer, fuller life? To marry a